So here we have it folks, TPSN’s fifth review of the week, and this one, as you might have read, is a “mega” one. That’s right, due to the sheer amount of DLC released by Criterion for Burnout Paradise I decided it’d be better if we combined the lot of it into one massive review. Of course each piece will get it’s own score, I just thought a one stop shop for Burnout reviews would be better than a ton of separate reviews. Ok then let’s get to it.

[After some deliberation I feel that it seems needless to score anything that does not add anything new, content-wise, to the game. I feel that it would be unfair to score a downloadable car pack and place that alongside scores of game changing content such as the Party Pack and Cops & Robbers modes. I hope that you respect my decision to do this]

Party Pack

The first piece of paid-for downloadable content for Burnout Paradise was the Party Pack. One of the biggest omissions from this edition of Burnout for fans of the series was the ‘pass the controller’ game modes. This is where the Party Pack comes in.

Now players can play 1-8 player local multiplayer and compete in a variety of challenges to see who’s the best and who gets the bragging rights in your circle of friends. The amount of modes available to the player is pretty vast and does help spice up the gameplay quite a lot and make for some interesting battles between you and your mates.

One of the things that has held this pack back from being the pinacle of content for fans is that Crash Mode has still been left out. Of course, this isn’t a slight on the pack but it might have justified it’s price tag had it been in there.

Overall this doesn’t really add a lot to the game. Of course, if you’ve got a lot of hardcore Burnout playing friends then it’s hard to resist but for most people it’s one to leave by the wayside.

6.5/10

Legendary Cars Pack

Additional content packs often seem arbitrary in many games and something that don’t change up the gameplay whatsoever. For the most part this can be said for the Legendary Cars pack. A lot of the cars really don’t do anything apart from add some new cars with old school movie connotations. There’s ‘kock off’s’ of all of you’re favourite movie cars including the General Lee (Duke’s Of Hazard), KIT (Night Rider) and Ecto-1 (Ghostbusters) sure these are all cool and must have’s for fans but it’s the Jansen 88 special that really changes up the game.

The Jansen (A.K.A. Delorean) is the one that changes up the gameplay the most, by offering a car that flies. Well, ok it hovers, but it definitely adds enough of a change to the game for people to pick up the pack (or at least this one car).

For fans of the movies/TV shows these cars are a must have and definitely add some cool stuff to the game, just not enough stuff to make this pack a must have.

Toy Cars Pack

Like the Legendary Cars and, the upcoming, Boost Specials car packs these too are not nessecary to the whole Burnout experience. Sure, they’re a bunch of ‘new’ vehicles, but it isn’t a substantial piece of content that really changes the game. Yeah, your car/bike might be small and, for a while, that’s quite a novelty but it does get really old quite fast. Unlike the other packs they don’t add anything new to the game and are simply scaled down versions of cars already included in the game. There’s not much else to say really. If you want to turn Paradise City into the land of Micro Machines then this is the perfect pack for you. Otherwise it seems to be reserved for kids, completists and trophy whores.

Boost Specials Pack

Another arbitrary car pack here. There’s only two cars in this pack and, although they’re pretty good I think the pricing was a little off on these. The cars look cool and do offer something different in terms of gameplay, but I think these are reserved for the ‘proper hardcore’ Burnout fans. The cars look nice and do have some really cool things in terms of boost, but that’s about it.

Cops And Robbers Pack

The second piece of, what I would call, “game changing” content for Burnout Paradise is the Cops and Robbers mode. The online centric mode fits perfectly into the Burnout universe and I for one am surprised that Criterion didn’t include this from the start.

On a basic level, it’s capture the flag with cars. Each team is set the task of moving a stack of gold bricks to either the police station (Cops) or a safehouse (Robbers) before the other team does. It sounds simple, but Criterion have included some really cool, simple, yet inventive elements in order to make this an experience players will keep wanting to come back to.

The basic rules are simple, but the game has definitely been adapted to make sure everything is fair for both sides. Each team is assigned the same car (skinned in blue and white for the Cops team) which definitely evens up the playing field. It definitely wouldb’t work if the cops were in F1 Cars and the robbers were stuck with busted up old vans. The second important thing I noticed was that whichever player is currently holding the gold is slowed down due to it’s weight. This makes for an interesting team work mechanic (unintentional pun, I assure you) where players must guard the player holding the gold to try and stop them from taking down the carrier and escaping with it themselves. All of this makes for really interesting car-based mayhem all set in Paradise City.

Not only do you get the new mode, but with this pack comes 33 ‘new’ cars. Well they’re not exactly new, they’re just re-skins of some of the game’s best cars with a few added flashing lights. They’re not exactly something special, but are a nice touch nonetheless.

Overall the pack is good. The cops and robbers mode is  blast online and the addition of those new cars definitely adds a little more variety to your Burnout Junk Yard. The only thing I feel is missing, is the ability to play the mode offline. I realise that it’s hard to make such a team centric mode work in local multiplayer but the option would’ve been nice. Even against the AI the mode would’ve been quite cool. That aside this is, by far, the best Burnout content pack to date and is definitely worth the price tag in comparison to some of those others.

9/10

I hope that this “Mega Review” was good enough and let you guys out there know the ins and out of the Burnout Paradise content. With the latest pack, Big Surf Island, coming on June 11th you’d better watch out for that review fairly soon.

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